Six Tips on Upgrading your Home on a Budget

When facing the need to upgrade your home, it helps to be honest with yourself about your budget and expectations. You need to consider which updates will both look good and give you a return on your investment if you decide to sell. There are ways to reduce your costs, or eliminate costs altogether, and still improve your home.

Refresh Everything You Can

It can be quite easy to update light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, curtains, blinds and other details. This can update the look of the home with a minimum of expense. It can put the finishing touches on the kitchen and bathroom. Your kitchen cabinets will be so much more appealing just by using a coat of wood finish and changing out the old handles for a more modern look.

Tear Down

Perhaps you can’t do the whole job yourself, but maybe you can do the tear down. For instance, you can save money by taking the tile down from a bathroom before a remodel or tear down a wooden deck before professionals build a new one. Some contractors will adjust their prices according to the amount of work you can do yourself, especially if they are charging by the hour. The more work you can get done yourself, the less you will need to pay a professional to do.

Discount Materials

This doesn’t just mean shopping around, although there are discount sources for everything from flooring to paint. Before shopping, however, determine what materials you need, what you want, and what you expect. With this in mind, you can compare prices for the truly best deal. You can look at ads, find sales and buy things in advance while they are on sale.

Paint

Don’t underestimate the power of a fresh coat of paint. For colors, tend toward neutrals. Repainting can refresh kitchen and bathroom cabinets with a little glossy paint and your elbow grease. Do an honest assessment of the interior and exterior. Determine everything you can do on your own. Painting is easy and can do wonders to brighten up a dull room. Buying paint is also inexpensive, especially if you buy online at places like Trade Paint Direct.

Emphasize Long-lasting Materials

Every remodeling step should meet these criteria: long-lasting, forward-thinking, and worthy of permanence. Sometimes it is worth aiming for the best materials. For instance, linoleum may be inexpensive, but it won’t increase the value of your home nor will it stand up to the test of time. By contrast, hardwood floors are timeless. Hardwood flooring lasts for years. Hardwood floors definitely add to the intrinsic value of the house. If you are planning on selling your home at some point in the near future, return on investment is especially important to keep in mind. You need to ask yourself, will spending money on this upgrade allow me to sell my home for more?

Waste Management

There are logical and legal ways to avoid charges for the dump or for a dumpster. If you have a significant project in mind, you may have to dispose of a lot of waste. You can find programs likeHabitat for Humanity’s ReStore, that may work with you to remove cabinets and light fixtures that are still good. If you plan on tearing out a large amount of carpet or material, you’ll need to talk to your local waste management and rent a dumpster.

Upgrading your home can help ensure that your home is both appealing and that you can sell it for what it’s worth. Home upgrades can be an expensive investment, but there are a variety of ways to save money on your home improvement. If you plan and upgrade wisely, you will be able to get back more than you spend on improvement when you home goes on the market.

Kandace Heller is a freelance writer from Orlando,
Florida. She studied communications at the University of Florida. She
loves to research new information and share what she learns with
others through writing.

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